Michael Schade, CEO and Co-Founder of Fish Labs and I first met at the Paris GDC this year. We then met again at Leipzig and decided that we seem to get on well. So it was a great pleasure when we finally sat down on Saturday and chatted after a few nights of parties and lots of hard work to get their booth ready for the show.

He told me that someone had just contacted him about a rumor that Fish Labs was for sale. This stemmed from them having a major presence at Leipzig. Well a major presence for a mobile game maker. They had (*gasp*) a booth! They handed out free downloads. Therefore they must be going broke or be up for sale.

But wait, Michael just told me that they are doing another round of VC financing. So what’s the pile of money going to be then? Incentive for someone to buy the company? Heck no, says Michael, we’re not for sale, but we are open to all deals.

What I think happened is that their aggressive presence at Leipzig spooked some people and they were just confused. The Fish Labs booth was slammed with gamers getting those free Bluetooth mobile game downloads. I didn’t even manage to get them. Of course I have most of them already so I’m not worried.

The coolest thing I think Michael said while we were talking was, "we’re still a startup and we’re still crazy about what we do." Then he showed me the new games they’re working on. That enthusiasm definitely showed through in the products.